It’s something I’ve been working on for over a year, and I’m pleased, relieved, and frankly overjoyed that I can finally share it with you guys. You fine folks are gonna love it!

What does it do?

It plays the best Messianic Jewish and Hebrew Roots music on the web.

And, unlike other radio stations, Chavah actually learns what you like, and plays more of that stuff. You see, each song can be thumbed-up (or down). When you thumb-up a song, Chavah knows to play more music like that song for you. If you thumb-down a song, Chavah will play fewer songs like that for you. It learns your musical tastes, and gets smarter about what tunes for the Lord to stream to your ears.

Chavah then goes a layer deeper: she looks at the general community ranking of each song, looks at the musical features of those songs, and plays more of the good stuff, less of the bad. It makes the good tunes float to the top, and the junk sink to the bottom.

On top of all that is a social, breathing Messianic music community. As listeners thumbed-up songs, trending songs will instantly appear in your stream:

Chavah also lists the top-rated tunes, your recently-played songs, and your thumbed-up songs. Clicking any of these song tiles will queue it up for play.

The motivation for v2

Technology is changing the way people interact with computers. The mobile computing explosion of the last 5 years caused people to use PCs and Macs less, opting instead for mobile phones and tablets. And for some, mobile phones are their only portal to the world and the internet; if you don’t exist on mobile, you don’t exist at all.

This presented a problem for Chavah v1. It was built with a web-plugin called Silverlight, and Silverlight ran only on PCs and Macs. Chavah v1 didn’t work on mobile phones and tablets.

I decided to take the plunge: I rewrote Chavah from the ground up to work with emerging technology standards that work across mobile devices and desktops.

Chavah v2 is the fruit of that labor.

And believe-you-me, getting audio to play on mobile platforms, PCs, Macs, Linux, and all web browsers was no easy feat! There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth to bring about the refined gold that is Chavah v2.

As far as I can tell, Chavah is the only Messianic radio on the web that runs on mobile phones and is the only Messianic radio that doesn’t require plugins or installs. Shalom365 is Flash, Inspired Faith is Windows Media Player, Yeshua Radio is Windows Media Player and Real Player. All that stuff is dying technology that doesn’t work on mobile, and will disappear in the coming years. Chavah v2 works on all those platforms, by contrast. We’re breaking some new ground here, folks.

FAQ

Q. Is Chavah available in the App Store?A. No. Just open up your web browser on your phone, go to messianicradio.com

Q. I see the website on my phone, but I don’t hear any music. What’s wrong?A. Make sure you’re running the latest version of your phone software.

Droid? You need to be running at least v2.3 (Gingerbread, released in 2010).

iPhone? You’ll need to click the “play” button before the music starts.

These steps didn’t help? Install Opera Mobile Browser from the app store, and open Chavah through that.

Q. I have an old computer. Will Chavah still work?A. Yes. If you’re on Windows XP or later, Chavah will work. However, you need to be running on Internet Explorer 8 or later (upgrade here). If you’re running Internet Explorer 7, you may run into problems. If you’re running Internet Explorer 6, you need divine deliverance. Alternately, just install Google Chrome and use that, and you’ll be smooth sailing.

Q. What web browser do you recommend to run Chavah on PCs and Macs?A. I recommend Google Chrome. Chavah works on all browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer. However, Firefox deliberately does not support native MP3 playback due to licensing issues, and thus, Chavah will fallback to Flash on that browser. And Internet Explorer does not support some of the visuals we are pushing; you’ll get a scaled-back UI on IE 9. Google Chrome supports all of it, so use that (get it here).

Q. I don’t see the song request feature in the new Chavah. Where is it?A. Coming soon.

Q. Can I install Chavah onto my PC/Mac/phone/tablet? A. Yes. Details forthcoming, check back in a few days.

How far we’ve come

As a frame of reference, I released Chavah Messianic Radio v1 two years ago. Announced it on this very blog, in fact, on February 16, 2010. Here’s what that first, early version looks like:

<—Old Chavah. She was young and barren.

Ha! A little primitive and bare, perhaps, but it was our first stab at this idea of streaming Messianic music to the world, our first attempt at raising the visibility of Messianic music.

But in just two years, Chavah has evolved into something beautiful and sophisticated.

And in just those 2 years, Chavah has streamed nearly 900,000 Messianic tunes to her thousands of listeners. She’s received the attention of Messianic Jewish artists, many of whom have contributed their own tunes to the station. She’s built up a loyal fan base. And she’s become the very best place to go for music for Yeshua’s disciples.

Yes, my friends, Chavah v2 has arrived, and she’d love to have you as a listener to her 2,500 songs, some 20GB worth of tunes for the Lord. Join Chavah community and be enriched by her sweet tunes! Oh yes!

So why not give Chavah version 2 a try? Put it on your phone while driving to work. Play it on your iPad while lounging in bed. Oh yeah! Stream off your laptop while working around the house.

Under the currently playing song, you have up/down buttons to change the song track. That doesn't seem to change more than one number up or down. Example, currently seeing/playing song 8. Pressing down arrow only goes to 7 or up arrow only goes to 9.

The up and down arrow is the "like/dislike". If you like a song by clicking the up arrow, Chavah will play that song more, and play more music like it for you. If you dislike a song by clicking the down arrow, Chavah won't play that song for you, and will play less music like that.

The number between the arrows is the community rank for a song. If a song says "37", that means at least 37 people liked that song (by clicking the up arrow). Negative numbers indicate that more people have disliked a song (by clicking the down arrow) than liked it.

I updated it so that when you mouse over the arrows, an explanation is offered.

No app, just go to beta.messianicradio.com. Regarding iPad, I had that problem early last night. I deployed a fix, and verified it's working correctly on my iPad. Can you try again and let me know the results?

Ok after one song on iPad she stops playing on the iPhone it's working great she playing right now on my docking player. On iPad I cleared the browser then tried again, also same while paying it in the background. P.S. the iPhone just stopped playing in the middle of a song... Just to let you know I turn of the the settings to never turn off as well...

Two suggestions: 1) can you make it a little less tall? In portrait mode it is slightly taller than the iPad screen. (Wow, I'm being picky.) 2) and chance af adding the ability of scrubbing forward nd backward? I don't know if the music streaming interface allows it though.

Wow!!! What a great site awaits the believers in Y'shua. You, my dear brother in Moshiach, have achieved a miracle in technology, you've outdone yourself, and we are the receivers of your hard work, thank you so much! The music is excellent, we couldn't ask for anything better, much love from another believer in Y'shua Ha Moshiach, who light up our path, and who is "The Truth" Himself. Stay safe in Him, many blessings for you and your loved ones. Baruch Hashem, Ahava v'chesed.

Get better soon, I pray to the Great Physician, our Creator, that whatever "bugged" you leaves you, and that your health be restored! HaShem protect you and your family, may you all be blessed!! Get well!!! :)

Oh Judah, it is BRILLIANT. I am a big fan of Chavah since day one...and now I can carry her around with me on my iPhone...SUH-WEET!The Grant family values the gifts and service that you have offered to our community of faith--I praise the Most High for folks like you!

I just chatted with Aviad online, nothing special. We were talking about different stuff, and I mentioned that Alex wanted to sing one of Aviad's songs during hot potato, heheh. Aviad thought that was pretty cool, and wanted me to send that message along to Alex. :-)

I am friends with Ken Lane. He's a good guy. I think that particular song has poor audio recording quality, and it's kind of an off-beat sort of tune to begin with. I'll delete it from the station this week.

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